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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, education is the right of every child. This right must be given by the State. I hope that after this Motion, Sen. Halima will proceed to look at the Education Act and see whether she can engineer some amendment to it, so that this spirit can be incorporated in the law and make it mandatory for the Government to act. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I support the Motion, I want us to broaden our thinking. We have Kenyans living in the marginalized areas. Some of these areas are marginalized by the climatic conditions while others are marginalized by successive neglect by previous governments in this country. We also have people who live in what looks like well-endowed areas, but are equally marginalized. I have mentioned to Sen. Murkomen, to see if he can find a meeting ground with Sen. Halima, to amend and broaden this Motion to cover certain areas that I want to mention. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I visited an area in Kiambu called Ruthigiti, which is somewhere behind Kikuyu Town. It is close to Ndeiya. This area is more marginalized than any other area that I know of, because I have been everywhere in this country. It is worse than parts of Mandera, Garissa and many places that we call marginalized, yet when we talk about areas that are marginalized we forget that a place like Ruthigiti is also marginalized. Nairobi is supposed to be the nerve centre of everything, but if you just take time and go to Kibera, Mathare, Soweto, Mukuru kwa Njenga and Mukuru Kayaba, you will see how millions of Kenyans are marginalized. In fact, literary in every county in this country, whether Laikipia or Kericho, behind that opulence of endless stretches of tea plantations, there are people who live destitute lives. Even here in Nairobi when you go to places like Runda or Karen where the rich of the rich live, next you will find a horrible slum which Charles Dickens described in one of his books, that in every affluent area there is a slum next to it, to provide them with labour and crime. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to encourage Sen. Halima to pay attention to all these issues. Marginalized children are not defined by the physical areas where they come from, but the circumstances under which they live. You will find this literary in every village, including Murang’a, Bungoma, Elgeyo-Marakwet and even in areas that we constantly talk about as being favoured. They have their own destitute marginalized people that require help. To this end then, I support the very noble idea. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it has been proven that in many situations, children from poor neighbourhoods who end up in boarding schools perform very well. A child in Kibera has a nightmare of security, water, food, the environment itself, noise pollution and everything. If a boarding school was provided for a child from that neighbourhood to go to school, where there is a free meal, decent classroom and uniform, that child will end up being an excellent student and a successful person. So, we should look at the whole country and say that, of course, with affirmative action maybe areas with traditional neglect, like what Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo has been talking about. If you visit West Pokot and have quite a casual look at the terrain, you cannot imagine that it is a marginalized area. But we also know that during colonial days, West Pokot was a closed district. The successive regimes from Independence maintained West Pokot as a closed district, where the Government would simply close off the district and set in the Army and police to beat people at will, rape women, do all sorts of things and then go back to their bases. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}